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Russia: Farewell to a free and open internet?

Many countries, such as Iran and China, control what its citizens can access and say over the internet, and now Russia is heading in the same direction.

Over the past several months, the Russian government has been working towards tightening online censorship, justifying its actions by claiming this will help stamp out anti-terrorist groups, and websites promoting illegal activity.

Internet freedom in Russia: what's going on?

Russia is vying for greater control over what its netizens can say, and have passed several laws that grant them just that. Earlier this year, the power to block websites deemed a threat to Russia’s political standing and interests, and websites promoting illegal activities was given to Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor. What is interesting is that Roskomnadzor can bring any website down, without a court ruling and they have already done on numerous occasions, shutting down several opposition blogs including chess master and political activist Garry Kasparov, and a number of news channels. The blocks on both of these sites have since been lifted.

A law passed earlier this year and coming into effect on 1 August 2014, requires foreign companies to relocate their servers in Russia to handle Russian traffic, and store data for six months. But for many internet companies such as Google and social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to execute this move would be a logistical nightmare, and the cost would be enormous. According to Karen Kazaryan, an analyst at the Russian Association for Electronic Communications it will cost around $200 million to build the servers and $10 million a year to maintain them.

This means that the communications regulator, Roskomnadzor would be able monitor and control what its citizens say online - of course, this also means that Russians would think twice about posting their thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, forums and other social media outlets. Self censorship would naturally be in place, and that’s something Putin would applaud. It remains to be seen if foreign companies will house servers in Russia, and if not, will Russia ban its citizens from accessing popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google? Time will tell.

Russia's Bloggers Law makes things tricky for bloggers and readers

Russia has passed another law, known as “Bloggers Law” that also takes effect 1 August. This law means that all bloggers will be treated as a media outlet and any blogger with over 3000 page visits, including Twitter users with over 3000 followers, will need to register with the authorities. Interestingly, China’s equivalent law has a 5000 page view limit. According to Bloomberg Businessweekthis means that companies like Twitter will have to keep details when a user logs on and off, and to whom they send their messages. In addition, bloggers will have to publish their real surname, and contact details on their web page. If they fail to adhere to these rules, they face a hefty fine. According to Human Rights Watch “between 10 and 30 thousand rubles (US$280 - 840) for individuals and up to 300,000 rubles ($8,400) for legal entities. Repeated violations incur higher fines – up to 50,000 rubles for individuals ($1,400) and up to 500,000 rubles ($14,000) for legal entities – or administrative suspension of the site for up to one month.”

Recent talks took place between Twitter and Roskomnadzor. The outcome was somewhat muddled, with Russia saying that Twitter had agreed to block ten extremist accounts, and Twitter refuting this claim. In the past Putin has called Twitter “a CIA project”, and he is also apparently concerned that Russian companies will suffer at the hands of foreign companies operating in the country.

From what I can see, it’s more a matter of controlling and placing a stranglehold on a free and open internet - something we at HMA! do not applaud.

There is a solution: protect our freedom online with a VPN

Artyom Kozlyuk of the independent Internet Freedom watchdog Rublacklist.net recently told The Moscow Times “People are waking up to the fact that the government is ham-fistedly regulating the internet, and are increasingly looking for tools to regain access to information."

And those tools are VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). Many countries whose governments block websites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter circumnavigate such bans using a VPN.

You don’t need to be a technical genius to understand what a VPN is and how to use one. Millions of people around the world, from all walks of life use one in a number of different ways; to bypass geo-restricted content, to access pages their government has blocked, to secure their data when using public Wi-Fi, and to keep their online searches, private.

When you connect to a VPN server, you’re given a new IP address, that allows you to surf the net safe in the knowledge that your government cannot spy on your online activity. Internet users from countries like China and Iran and Russia use a VPN for precisely this purpose.

We at HMA! believe that everyone has the right to express themselves and that a free and open internet is so important in the world we live in today. Taking away this basic human right is something we abhor and actively seek to uphold.

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